The Editta Braun Company is a dance company founded in Salzburg, Austria in 1989 by the Austrian choreographer,World Ballet and Dance Bent Schonberg, Elizabeth Charman, Sanjoy Roy dancer and dance instructor Editta Braun. Members of the multi-national team include dancers, composers, dramatic advisors and light designers. The Editta Braun Company’s work pursues political themes, including intercultural communication and feminist questions. The company is particularly known for the body theatre performance pieces Lufus, Luvos, vol. 2, planet LUVOS, Close Up, Close Up 2.0 and Fanghoumé. The Editta Braun Company has toured in Europe, Asia, Africa and performs at both large and specialty festivals."album review Zaboitzeff & Crew - Miniaturen: Zoydian suite in three movements - 2000". Progvisions.
History
Editta Braun was one of a group of students who formed the dance collective Vorgänge in 1982. She founded her own company shortly before the group broke up in 1989.World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Volume 1: Europe, Volume 1 edited by Peter Nagy, Phillippe Rouyer, Don Rubin In 1997, French composer and musician Thierry Zaboitzeff began creating sound tracks to accompany the group's productions; most have been released as albums."album review: Zaboitzeff & Crew - Miniaturen: Zoydian suite in three movements - 2000". ProgVisions, José Nafría - October 2000"José Nafría - October 2000 "Thierry Zaboitzeff — Planet Luvos (Booster BTZ972, 2012, CD)". Exposé, by Peter Thelen, 2013-09-21 Thomas Hinterberger and Peter Thalhamer have designed the lighting for many pieces.
The company collaborated with Egyptian director Mahmoud Aboudoma and his drama ensemble to create Coppercity 2001, based on one of the tales from 1001 Nights.
In 2002, the company began to incorporate texts into their productions, for example, Manfred Wöhlcke’s sociological essay Soziale Entropie and literary variations of the Arthur myth. In 2004, Austrian author Barbara Neuwirth wrote the text for Eurydike, a piece which was commissioned for the Brucknerfest in Linz, and included a chamber orchestra, drama and dance ensemble.
In 2004, the company increased its staff of artistic directors and choreographers to include Arturas Valudskis, Rebecca Murgi, Shlomo Bitton, Teresa Ranieri, Mahmoud Aboudoma, Robert Pienz and Iris Heitzinger.
Over the years, outstanding artists from various disciplines (besides dance: drama, composition, direction, writing, dramaturgy, video, light design) have contributed their creative potential to the company. In the beginning, the company’s dance style was especially influenced by Céline Guillaume and Georg Blaschke, the work together with dance legend Jean Babilée, for whom Jean Cocteau and Roland Petit created Le jeune homme et la mort, was particularly sensational, immensely furthering the company’s international acclaim. Composer Peter Valentin contributed his work during this time.
For ten years, dancer Barbara Motschiunik played a main role in each production; in 2006, Anna Maria Müller and Tomaz Simatovic joined the group, together with Juan Dante Murillo Bobadilla.
Since 2010, several younger performers have joined the company, including Iris Heitzinger, Martyna Lorenc, Jerca Roznik Novak and others. Many performances have been developed with dramatist Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau.
The Luvos series
Luvos is a series of body theater performances."Israel Festival Reviews". Jerusalem Post, 05/29/2007 The series premiered in 1985 as Kollektiv Vorgänge’s Lufus.
Between 2001 and 2012, Luvos, vol.2 was performed worldwide before audiences totalling about 15,000 people, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Novosibirsk and Moscow, Marseille, Limassol and Nicosia, Brussels, Tallinn, Kaunas, Riga, Vienna, Salzburg and Linz. In 2012, the piece was performed at the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival in Edinburgh"Puppetry fuses with mixed media for festival". The Herald, Scotland, Mary Brennan, Dance critic / 27 January 2014"Stephen Mottram, Editta Braun and Duda Paiva among the highlights of Manipulate 2014". The List, 23 January 2014 Niki Boyle"Luvos, Traverse Theatre, Review (Manipulate Festival)". Edinburgh Guide, By Justine Blundell 05 February 2012
planet LUVOS was performed in 2012 during the Brucknerfest in Linz and at Manipulate in 2014.
Close Up was performed at Manipulate in 2016.
The Editta Braun Company has mounted more than 100 performances of Luvos, and has been reviewed positively among others in Neue Westfälische,Anke Gronewold in: Neue Westfälische, Bielefeld, August 2003. Neue Kronenzeitung,Andrea Hein in: Neue Kronenzeitung, Klagenfurt, Juli 2001. and TV BombTV Bomb, Edinburgh, February 6, 2012.
Publication
In 2009, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Editta Braun Company, the volume Tanz Kunst Leben. 20 Jahre Editta Braun Company, edited by Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau and designed by Bettina Frenzel, was published. It contains reminiscences from people who have accompanied the company on its journey, descriptions and pictures from the dance-theater productions presented in the past 20 years in chronological order, as well as interviews with founder Editta Braun and participating artists.
Selected full-length dance pieces and dance films
1989: Die Jagd – dance quintet 1990: Materialien für Tanz & Musik - dance and live music 1991: Collision - duet 1992: but kind old sun will know ... – dance theater 1993: La Vie, c’est contagieux - dance theater Collision – dance short film 1994: Voyage à Napoli - dance & rock’n roll live La Vie, c’est contagieux – video documentation about the creative process involved in making the stage piece 1995: Titania – search image in movement about Sisi, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary 1996: Im Dschungel des Pianisten – dance fable for young souls 1997: Heartbeat – concerto for dance & music, op. 1 - duo music and dance 1998: India – dance, quintet 1999: Miniaturen - dance and live music 2000: Nebensonnen - quartet 2001: Luvos, vol. 2 – body illusion theater 2002: manifest - drama, martial arts, dance Editta Braun Company in Dakar – video documentation about the creative process involved in making the stage piece manifest 2003: Tajine – improvisational project with dance, drama, live music 2004: Eurydike - symbiosis of three genres of the play ‚Eurydike’ from Barbara Neuwirth 2005: oXalis 2006: Matches of Time – dance theater 2007: Coppercity 1001 - dance and drama e.poration – short film 2008: Wenn ich einmal tot bin, komme ich ins Paradies - dance and song. 2009: Abseits – dance and drama 2010: König Artus – dance and drama 2011: schluss mit kunst – solo about migration 2012: planet LUVOS – a LUVOSmove® piece 2013: currently resident in 2014: Paula – dance solo 2015: Close Up – a LUVOSmove® piece 2016: LoSt – duo dance and drama 2017: Close Up 2.0 – a LUVOSmove® piece 2018: trails – dance quartet 2019: Fanghoumé – a LUVOSmove® piece, created for Senegal 2019: Layaz – duo 2020: Hydráos – a LUVOSmove® piece, trio 2021: long life – dance and drama, duo 2022: NaYma – dance and drama, solo 2022: LUVOS migrations - film by Editta Braun & Menie Weissbacher, AT 2022, 19 min. 2023: ALLES ANDERS – dance and drama, sextet 2024: Proximity – dance, trio 2025: UNDERDOGS – dancE, drama and acrobatics, sextet 2025: Women of Water, dance film, 9:30 min., AT 2025 2025: Woman of Air, dance film documentary,11:40 min., AT 2025 2025: WOMEN, dance film, 18 min., AT 2025
Awards
1986: Second Prize and Award for Most Innovative Choreography at the Concours Chorégraphique International de Bagnolet in Paris for Lufus for the Kollektiv Vorgänge 1995: bronze medal at the New York Film Festival for Collision, director Othmar Schmiderer 2001: Award for Best Direction at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre for Nebensonnen 2014: Internationaler Preis für Kunst und Kultur der Stadt SalzburgKulturfonds der Stadt Salzburg 2017: Großer Kunstpreis des Landes Salzburg 2022: Best Ensemble Performance Prize and nominations for Best Director and Best Stage Design at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre / Egypt for the dance piece Hydráos 2023: Special Jury Music Award at the Breaking Walls Dance Films Festival Cairo/Egypt for the dance film LUVOS migrations 2023: 3rd place in the main category Best Overall Dance Film Winners at the FlorenceDanceOnScreen Festival/Italy for the dance film LUVOS migrations 2023: Best Visual Language Award at the Moving Body Festival in Varna/Bulgaria for the dance film LUVOS migrations 2024: Sittannnavasal International Film Festival / India, Best Experimental Short Film 2024: Austrian Film Festival Vienna, Best Experimental Film 2025: Best Women's Short Film beim Sittannnavasal International Film Festival / Indien 2025: Austrian Film Festival Vienna, Best Dance Film 2025: Premio Internazionale Public Jury Teresa Pomodora für dasT anzstück Hydráos in Milano, No'hma Teatro
References
Bibliographic Guide to Dance, Volumes 1-3
External links
Web presence Editta braun company - German Web presence Editta braun company - English Kulturfonds der Stadt Salzburg, Preisträgerinnen 2014 - German